Resolutions to Attempt

This year I have a few things I want to do or work towards. One main goal I have is, surprise!!!, to get more fit. Here are some ideas that should help me along with this goal:

1. Try to get to sleep by 10 so I can get in the necessary sleep for my body to work efficiently.
2. Drink 3-4 bottles of water (24 oz.) a day.
3. Exercise for 15 minutes in the morning and 20 in the afternoon - breaking it up to ease into working out.
4. Eat fish once per week.
5. Eat fruit with each meal and veggies with lunch and dinner.
6. Weigh myself each morning and record weight on Friday mornings.
7. Save pop for Fridays and Saturdays.
8. When taking Bella out, walk her around the building.
9. Take picture of myself on the first of every month. See below for first set of pictures. Sexy, I know.

If you're curious, I do have a few other resolutions involving being more organized with my life, be more purposeful with God, church, prayer and bible-reading and with calling important people more consistently. But the main goal is as mentioned above. So this year I'll be "workin' on my fitness". Hopefully. If I can make myself. Let's see. Maybe I'll post at the beginning of February and if so, hopefully I'll be a lot less fat. :)

Quiche Lorraine

One of my proudest funny moments was when I was telling Clint about the two types of quiche served at one of my favorite restaurants. I told him there was quiche lorraine and cheese pie. He asked me what cheese pie was and I quickly replied, "Quiche without the lorraine."

We laughed quite a bit. Sometimes we still laugh about it.

Anyway, tonight I'm making quiche lorraine. For the first time ever I am making homemade quiche. I've made it from pour-a-quiche but I have a really hard time finding that at the grocery store, so I finally decided to suck it up and make it from a recipe.

Have I mentioned how much I love my Better Crocker Bridal Edition cookbook? It is amazing. I have made many a tasty meals from it. Here are some of the delicious recipes I've made from the cookbook:
1. Mixed Roasted Vegetables & Pasta
2. Mexican Casserole
3. Cheese Enchiladas
4. Potato Chip Chicken
5. Pumpkin Bars
6. Garden Saute Patch

There are more I'm sure. But you should check out the cookbook for sure, if you enjoy cooking. Amazon has them used for like 10 bucks. Totally worth it. Definitely let me know if you have a cookbook that you love, too.

I love love

I am so incredibly, undeniably in love with my husband. Which works out, since, you know, we're married. But really, I do love him. I never fathomed a love like this. I always prayed I would marry a man with certain characteristics, but I think I never once prayed for a love like this. God has been so good to us, giving us stuff we don't even ask for. There are so many things I asked for in a husband and now that I'm with Clint I see so many things I didn't even think of asking for that are enormously complimentary to my personality. God knows me so much better than I know me.

I will say, though, there is definitely an element of fear that comes with a love as intense as this. I am so afraid of losing him. I anticipated this, though. It was one of my hesitations when he asked me out on our first date. I argued with him about the risk and he convinced me to take the chance. You know, better to have loved and lost . . .

I never thought for one second that I could comprehend God's love for me but that incomprehensibility is now even more so. I never knew a love like mine and Clint's. It has blown my mind. And this is just an earthly love. God's love is so beyond that. It's mind-boggling.

Who Knew Grocery Shopping Could be a Thrill?

In lieu of my new get-out-of-debt endeavor, I am now attempting to be a thrifty grocery shopper. I'm a Hy-Vee addict, so this is where my endeavor takes place.

My basic strategy is to check out the Hy-Vee weekly ad online before I write my grocery list, then make a menu (with cookbooks and www.kraftfoods.com to inspire me). Finally I make my grocery list.
I take my grocery list in, along with the calculator on my phone, and bargain hunt like I was never raised to do.

The main thing I do is get Hy-Vee brand for a lot of things. Basic products, like dairy and pasta really don't seem to have that much, if any, of a taste difference. And they are almost always cheaper.

Also, for produce and cheese, I buy the things that haven't been prepared for me. Anytime I buy carrots, celery, lettuce, cauliflower, I buy the kind that still needed to be peeled and chopped (very rarely is it cheaper to buy the pre-chopped sort). I often buy cheese by the block as opposed to the shredded/sliced. It's almost always much cheaper. But sometimes not - today the shredded was the exact same price per ounce as the blocks of cheese, so I got shredded for the kinds of cheese that I needed shredded ultimately anyway.
The tricky thing is that I have to do a lot of math. I'm constantly figuring out how much products cost per ounce, because sometimes the bigger thing is a better deal, but sometimes the smaller thing is the better deal, ounce-wise. For instance, this week the smaller block of cheese was cheaper per ounce than the bigger block, but last week the reverse was true. Sometimes I wonder if people think I'm weird standing there with my phone out, staring at prices. But, hey, I'm saving money.

Another thing that helps out is remembering the prices and paying attention when I'm ringing up. Hy-Vee has an amazing thing called a scan guarantee - if something rings up at the wrong price, it is free. But you have to notice it and point it out, of course. A while back, Clint and I got 4 free frozen pizzas because of the scan guarantee and today I got a bag of shredded cheese for free.

I would like to get better at coupon clipping, but every time I try it, I don't find a lot and even when I try to use some, the off-brand is usually still cheaper than the brand-name with the coupon.

I will say, though, that there are a few things that I have found that are, in my opinion, not worth skimping on. Toilet paper, cereal and deodorant are the main ones so far.

If you have anything else I could do to save money on groceries, let me know.

I love getting out of debt!

We are already partway through paying off our debt and it hasn't even been that much work! This week we are going to be going from a Buick Rendezvous to a Pontiac Grand Am and this little switch will almost entirely wipe out our car debt! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!


I love this paying off debt crap. Here's what I think will happen with our Dave Ramsey plan over the next few months:

1. Finish building our $1000 emergency fund.
2. Take the next 10 months or so to pay off all debt except my school loans. That just leaves a little bit of seemingly justified debt.
3. Take a short break from paying off our debt to save up a down-payment for a house.
4. Buy a house!!!!!!
5. Resume our plan of paying off our debt, getting rid of my school loans. Then our only debt will be for our mortgage.
6. Continue with the rest of the Baby Steps.

This our tentative plan. We will, of course, probably have some kinks to work out and some punches to roll with, but, if the Lord wills it, this is what we'll aim for.

Plans feel good and so does paying off debt.

Now, if only losing weight were this easy to get started.

When it rains, it pours!

In the context of the last post, this post would seem even more meaningful, so you might need to review.

Today was a day for Clint and me to be blessed. See blessings below. You know, God does tell us to count them!

1. I ran out of leave-in conditioner about a week ago. The stuff I use is $14. I know most of you wouldn't see leave-in conditioner as a "need" but it means I only have to brush my hair for 1 minute instead of like 15 very painful minutes. But we haven't had fourteen extra dollars lately. But we got a coupon for the exact stuff I use for FREE in the mail! Yay!

2. My average electric bill is like $80. Last month it was like $156 and I about shat myself. This month it said $228. Before Clint and I had a conniption fit we noticed two little letters next to the 228: CR. We have $228 in credit for electricity! I had put a big deposit down last year and they gave it back to me! That's like 2-3 months of electricity!
3. We went to Hy-Vee to buy a frozen pizza to cook for lunch tomorrow. There was a sale for 4 for $11. That's a pretty good deal so we got 4. When we went to ring up, they rang up as the regular price but Hy-Vee has a scan guarantee. That means when something rings up for the wrong price, you get it for free! So 4 free pizzas!

So yay!

P.S. I'm going to start keeping track of product prices at Hy-Vee. Free stuff for their mistake, here I come!

Money, Money, Money!

Baby steps:

1. Save $1000 for an emergency fund
2. Snowball debt
3. Save up for 3-6 months of bills
4. Can't remember - maybe pay off house?
5. Build wealth

These are Dave Ramsey's baby steps.

These are the steps Clint and I are going through.

These are the steps that currently feel interminable.

But we're doing it. We're downsizing from a two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom. We're going to try and sell my SUV and get a cheaper car. We are holding ourselves to a super strict budget.

It feels as if we'll never be able to eat out again.

So if you invite us to do something frivolous and we refuse, don't be offended. Maybe we can play cards instead.

It's Real!

Ugh, I'm exhausted! Today was the first day of school. I spent the entire day getting to know 18 second graders and teaching them about the way I do what I do. Every year this day exhausts me. Takes everything out of me. Blah! I will say that this class seemed like they are going to be easy to get along with. Wide range of readers, but easy to get along with.

Anyway, I digress. I've been married for nearly two months and today, it felt real. I was Mrs. York a million times over. I had to write it many times, I heard it said many, many times and I even had to correct my principal with it once.

Now I've been married for 50-some days and it has felt, while thoroughly amazing, like I'm just playing house. Today took away a little bit of that pretend feeling. It was nice. And you know what else was nice? Coming home to my wonderful, sweet husband. That's what else. My real-life husband.

I'm getting married!

that's all. i'm getting married. :) saturday. eek!

Almost Here!

In 24 days, my life will be changed forever. I will give up the name I've grown up with and gain a name to grow old with. I will marry Clint. Ah, I am so incredibly blessed.

The problem with this is that I HAVE TOO MUCH CRAP TO GET DONE!

Why do people do this to themselves? Everyone does this. Long (torturous for those of us who are saving certain things for their wedding night) engagements and months of planning. I just want to get married. Be married to Clint. All this planning hoopla does not seem worth the work. If I could do it all over again I would either go to the courthouse or have a church wedding with cake and punch in the basement. Boo for all this work. Maybe I'll feel different after we're married, like, "It was the best day of my life. I wouldn't change a thing." But for now I feel like, "I want to pull out my hair. Let's cancel the whole shindig and go to the courthouse." But invitations have already been sent out. Oh, well. I'm sure it'll be the best day of my life. At the very least (and the very best) I will get to spend the rest of my life with Clint.

84 days!

it is gorgeous outside. i love it! sunny saturday mornings are my favorite (especially with pretty crazy daisies from my fiance gracing my table). i can't wait for when clint is here in the morning for us to share it. i would love to have a back porch to sit on and drink our coffee (because when we grow up, that's what we'll drink).

we have 84 days left and guess what. i'm just now motivated (but it's always easier to be motivated when you're just sitting there, thinking) to lose weight and get in shape. but i'm worried that if i lose a bunch of weight i'll have a hard time with my dress. i already bought it. i can get it altered, but what if i lose too much? i'm such a freakin' nerd. my mom yelled at me for this reasoning. but really, how late and how much can a girl get her dress altered?

i'm rockin' and rollin' with wedding planning. wedding dress: check. preacher: check. church: check. reception site: check. flowers: check. cake: check. food: check. start pre-marital counseling: check. cute shoes: check.

the list of things to do continues though: help clint pick out tuxes, centerpieces, find out about linens, invitations (do you really have to do reply cards? money, people.), gifts for wedding party, and i'm not sure what else, but i know this isn't all.

you know what advice i would give to all girls planning their wedding? ignore those checklists for brides. they will only freak you out. at least they did me. i got engaged january 9th (friday) and the following thursday, i was in tears because i was so stressed out, thinking i could never plan it all. so i ditched the list (totalling my car did a good job distracting me from it all, too. weird blessing from God.). i just prioritized and went at it. every now and then i get stressed out - especially when it comes to guest list size - but overall, i keep it at a steady hum of slight stress/excitement.

84 days, y'all!

Wedding Planning

In a short 99 days I get to marry this amazing guy. Right now I'm listening to his super sexy snore while he naps on my couch. Something for me to look forward to. And by look forward to, I mean, try not to think about it too much.

Lately I've gotten a lot planned for the wedding. I got my dress what feels like forever ago. It is white. And it's a wedding dress. That's all you'll get out of me until then. Then after some struggling and picking a new date, we got a church (a pretty baptist church in a fairly small town), a reception site (a golf course that my brother-in-law works at), and a preacher (Clint's brother's pastor).

I forgot that he moans when he sleeps. Like a ghost. Something else to look forward to.

Plans slowed down after that for a while. I took a short intermission to total my car and drive a few rentals until I got a my new car (a new-to-me Buick Rendezvous with wonderful heated seats). I'm not very good at managing my teaching and making lots of phone calls, so dealing with the car was about all I could do for a while, thus the stand-still on the wedding plans.


So now that all the car shiznizzle is taken care of, it has been back to wedding planning. We have registered at Bed Bath and Beyond and Macy's and still need to register at Pottery Barn asap, since Christina is sending out invites to my first shower, coming up in April.

Poor baby, I think he just stopped breathing for a second. He needs to turn over. Oh my gosh, he totally just turned over. We're so in tune.

I recently found a deejay and I wish I had a recording of our last conversation to post on here because it was freaking hilarious. The part I found most entertaining was when he turned down his t.v. and said he was listening to Catherine McPhee sing Barbara Streisand, then said, "Sounds super gay, doesn't it?" Hopefully he busts out with some of that stuff at our reception.

My mom and I set up all the flowers last weekend. Red and white and all sorts of pretty. Oh, I forgot to mention, my girls dresses are red and gorgeous. I think most, if not all, of them have ordered them, so we're on track with that. Oh, and I got my pretty red peep-toes to wear that day. Yup, red.

Tomorrow we're going to do the cake and catering. Fun, fun, fun! Hopefully I don't look as awful as I do today (pink eye rocks, y'all).

Soon we need to do tuxes, invitations, finish registering and I don't even know what else. Oh, yes, rings. That'll be very soon. Have I told you about my gorgeous ring?

99 red balloons go by. 99 bottles of beer on the wall. 99 freaking days until I get to marry him.

he asked me

i'm sitting here, with this thing catching my eye. i can barely type without pausing to stare at it. guess what the thing is. no, really, guess. it's a freaking ring, that's what it is! a diamond ring. a ring that means i get to spend the rest of my life with this amazing man. an engagement ring. obviously, i'm thrilled.
last friday, he made me chicken parmesan which was delish. i wish i had some right now, as a matter of fact. he had built a fire and we had some candles on the table with the lights off as we ate. we're just sitting there talking about work and education in general when he pops up and tells me he has something for me. he has a game for me. he hands me a baggie with a puzzle in it, one from kaleidescope. the kind that you draw on and they roll it through a press that cuts it into puzzle pieces. i had made him one when we first started dating and i had taken my class on a field trip to kaleidescope - i had written "you make me laugh. oh you" so i'm thinking where did he get a kaleidescope puzzle from. he tells me to put it together, so i did. all put together, it said will you marry me. he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. hugging and kissing and yessing ensued. so romantic, right?
so in a few months, i will be changing my name. i'm so blessed.

Dogs

Deep thought from Miss Ro:
Ice cream just fills in the cracks in your stomach - it fits even when stuffed.

Deeper thought from Miss Ro:
Dogs are like ice cream - their love fills in the cracks of all the other love in your life.

I'm a nerd, but this analogy came to my mind today and it was good for my soul, in a way. See, I love my dog, Bella. I love her so much. I know that non-dog-lovers, along with some so-called "dog-lovers" probably don't get this part of me, but, nonetheless, that's how I feel. And it tears me up, thinking of the possibility of her not being in heaven. But when I thought of this analogy today, coupled with the knowledge that God's love will leave no "cracks" when I'm in heaven, I realized that I'll be okay without my dog. (Disclaimer: God's love leaves no cracks right now, I'm just too imperfect to feel it as completely as I will be able to later.)

I'm a nerd, so just ignore my blabberings in this blog.

Blessings

I know it's not Thanksgiving, which merits thankfulness, but God's blessing of sending His Son to us makes me think of all of the ways He has blessed me. And you know, "Count your blessings, name them one by one," and all that jazz. So let me count.

1. God sending his Son so that we could be justified
2. My entire family
3. Time spent with my family
4. My loving dog
5. My amazing boyfriend
6. A job I love
7. All of my needs are provided for, along with many of my wants
8. Lots of great friends and some amazing best friends
9. And on
10. And on
11. And on

I'm incredibly blessed.

Ah, me!

So maybe I was overthinking yesterday about stuff. I'm a nerd. This is what I do, so get used to it, all you followers.

Ugh

Christmas has been, for the last few years, kind of bittersweet for me, as far as family goes. I love spending time with my family. It's my favorite part of Christmas. I could totally do without the gifts, on account of the stress they bring. I would be completely satisfied with a Christmas with family sans gifts. Totally.

This is where the tiny bit of heartache comes into play. My sisters are both attached to men they love. This means that they have had to split Christmases between our family and the guys' families. This makes me say, "Booooo!" I want my family all to myself. Also, it had this wonderful (and this is the worst part) knack for making me so utterly and uncomfortably aware of my singleness that, well, let's just say that'd suck a lot of the joy of Christmas out as well. I wished that when they left to spend time with the other family that I had somewhere to go since they were leaving me. But, alas, I had no other place to go. So mini-pity parties (okay, let's be honest - they were far from mini) would inevitably ensue.

So this year is the year that God decided to bless me with my own love. I'm ecstatic, to say the least. But I was not prepared for the holiday grief this blessing held. Last Christmas, I would have assumed my holidays woes would be gone. Now I'm one of those that has to split holidays up between families. So here it is, Christmas Eve, and I just keep thinking about how I'm not happy with how the split is happening tonight. It just doesn't feel even. But I can't tell if I'm being reasonable or just emotional. Christina tells me, no, bring on the water works (I want to talk to him but I think I'd just cry and then I would feel manipulative because of the tears).

Oh, well. I need to stop thinking about it so much. Quit examining whether things are fair. Just enjoy that I have someone to love and someone that takes my breath away with his love for me.

So, God, could you help me stop being so over analytical and start just enjoying this holiday?

He knows the plans He has for me

Life is crazy. Sometimes I am just blown away by the twists and turns life has. I am a mathematical person, so I naively expect life to be like math: formulaic, methodical, predictable. But that's not how life works, although it feels like it while you're growing up, in the same order as everyone else - kindergarten, first grade, second grade, drive at 16, graduate at 18, go to college, graduate college. Life is pretty much a set of milestones that we all hit at the same time. That is, until we graduate college. Then, for people like me, it feels as if we've entered into the abyss of unpredictability. The unforeseen. Drives me freaking nuts, sometimes.

This last year and a half has been a perfect example of this unpredictability. Last summer I began to prepare to move in with my sister, Christina. She bought a house in a cute downtown area and our littlest sister, Becca, was going to live with us as well. So come September I start helping her paint her "new" house and soon I have the slowest movers this side of China move me to my new location. This period of my life is a little blurry because it got fast and furious (literally) real quick-like. I remember Bella, my beautiful dog, being ecstatic to be with Christina's dog, Scout (also Bella's sister). Then there was fighting. Ah, sisterly love. Oh, the fighting. You'd think a 26-year-old woman could be civil with her sisters, but hormones and rage get in the way. It didn't really matter, though, because not long after moving in (like a month or a bit more) Christina got engaged, found out she was going to have a baby and began planning a January wedding. So naturally, I was going to have to move out. So, as I dealt with a pregnant, hormonal, constantly vomiting sister, I planned my next move, so soon after my September move. I just love moving. Especially when you get to do it like, I don't know, four months after just having moved. It's freaking great.

Then in November I had a couple of trips planned, both for work. The second trip ended in the absolute worst way possible. I had come with 3 girls from work and on the last day of workshops was called out because there had been a family emergency. Sara, one of the girls who I had come with, had just found out her little girl had died. Totally unexpected and tragic. Blew me away. I'm still messed up from the whole event. It made me more afraid of losing my loved ones and kind of afraid of having more loved ones to lose.

The next couple of weeks blew by. Birthdays, Christmas, time with loved ones, time watching Christina's belly expand. In January I moved in with my parents so that I could save up for the next move. (Good news, though: my movers were way faster this time.) Christina and Brandon got married.

That part of all these twists and turns rocked my world. Stuff seemed to, well, not slow down, but not be so hard to survive after that.

That spring I house-hunted like a maniac. Finally, I ended up deciding to move to Independence, my hometown, because I loved the location.

Finally, life actually started taking on more of a steady rhythm after that decision was made. I prepared to move, got closer to some friends and stayed pretty busy socially and otherwise.

The cutest nephew in the world was born in June. It's nuts that such crazy events can lead up to such an amazing miracle of life.

I moved in in August. Completely unexpectedly, a high school friend of mine, Clint, started wanting to hang out again after I moved in. He wanted to go on walks with Bella and me. It was really nice to have him to walk with and about that time, I started wondering what exactly he was thinking. In October he asked me whether I had thought of being more than friends. We decided to go on a date (after he assuaged my fears of risking a friendship that I valued). And the day after that we hung out. And the day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that. And I want all of my days to continue in the same fashion. I had no idea God had this in mind for me when I met this funny little brother of a friend of mine 9 years ago.

So,with all of these events, one would thinking I would let go of my expectations of a mathematical life. Who knows? Maybe I'll get used to it someday.